NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: A Nice Set of Horns
A female slunk through the undergrowth – the pregnant one Leo’s brother called Menhit. She ‘reported’ to the matriarch of their pride, Isis, then came over to Leo and sent what they had to guess was the same message.
According to her, the wildebeests were aware that there were lions around, but didn’t seem too alarmed. Perhaps they’d only seen the lions when they were far enough away and therefore didn’t think that they were in danger. The other female they’d left behind was in position, and they just needed to know which direction to send the wildebeests.
Leo accepted the information and the female slunk off again, moving carefully and using cover to make sure that the prey didn’t spot her. Spooking them at this point would be the last thing they wanted.
It was several long, tense moments before the signal came, but none of the lions moved more than to just shift position a little. Leo had chosen to settle off to the side, using a small bush to hide his bulk – he was significantly bigger than any of the lions and, unfortunately, these days even the long savannah grass couldn’t fully hide him. Not in the open plain areas, anyway.
Then it came: the roars and snarls of threatening lions.
‘Menhit and Hathor have revealed themselves?’ his brother asked, Dominic’s voice almost startling Leo. He twitched an ear slightly in irritation.
‘Yes. Now be quiet – I need to concentrate.’ More amused than abashed, the former-human thankfully went quiet.
There were more roars, more snarls, and then the sound of beating hooves coming towards them. Finally.
Wait for it.
Wait.
Wait.
They needed to time this to the perfect moment. Strike too soon and the wildebeests would be alerted and would avoid them. Strike too late and few lions would get a kill.
Wait…..
Now.
With the sounds of snarls, lions leapt from the grass, aiming straight for the throats of the wildebeests only a fraction of a second away from trampling them. Leo only spared the barest amount of attention for them, though – they would get their kill or they wouldn’t. His concern needed to be his own kill. Or kills, if he could.
A buck bolted towards him, apparently not aware that there were any lions this far away from the boiling mess of hooves, paws, tails, claws, and dust that the centre of the action had become.
Staying crouched behind his bush, Leo timed his move perfectly, launching himself out with the force of Quick Strike to bite at his prey’s throat.
With the bonus of Pounce aiding Crushing Bite, the buck went down without a sound, dead before he hit the ground and slid with his momentum. A notification flashed up; Leo dismissed it.
Before the world changed, that would have been it – Leo would have started tearing into its belly, but this was now, and instead he looked around for his next target.
Another wildebeest had been galloping towards him, but upon seeing the large lion, was trying to take evasive action. Unfortunately for it, Leo was quicker.
Pouring stamina into both Quick Strike and Rapid Attack, Leo went from a dead-stop to moving at full speed within a fraction of a second. Aiming for where the wildebeest was about to be rather than where it was, he collided with the beast.
It wasn’t as clean a kill as the first attack – Pounce could only help him so much when his opponent knew he was attacking – but with Crushing Bite and Sharp Nip both engaged, it wasn’t long before another notification flashed up.
As if that was the cue, the notifications started flashing up, the next falling immediately on the heels of the previous. Irritated, Leo wished that the annoying words that he couldn’t read would go.
And then…they did.
Pleased, Leo looked around to see if there were any more beasts around. A good number of the wildebeest were past, but there was still a large group all bunched up behind a particularly large bull.
Seeing other lions already racing for the majority of the last wildebeest, Leo decided to aid one of the new females who was chasing one of the stragglers of the previous wave towards him.
Standing, he roared at the prey animal, attempting to focus his whole sound on the escaping beast rather than on the lion chasing it.
The wildebeest paused for a moment – a fatal one as it turned out. The female who had been hot on its heels leapt for its throat the moment it slowed, wrapping her paws around its neck. Satisfied that she had a good chance of making a kill there, Leo looked around for any more.
Spotting another wildebeest bolting from a pair of lions, Leo had to guess that it had broken free of their ambush. Fortunately, he was close enough to intervene.
Putting on a turn of speed, he dashed towards the beast. It saw him coming and jinked to try to avoid him, but he was faster than it, even when it was running at full speed.
Leaping, his weight brought it right down to the ground. It struggled and fought, but couldn’t shift the heavy lion off, and his teeth soon crunched through the bones of its neck.
There was the sound of a bellow, one that was compelling in some way. Every single lion lifted its head to look at the originator of the sound – the bull standing before the remaining members of his herd. Even Leo felt an urge which was difficult to resist, though he sensed he could have.
Another notification flashed up in front of him. He was about to bat it away irritably when his brother’s voice stopped him.
‘Wait, let me read it.’ Leo waited impatiently for the second before Dominic started speaking. ‘It’s a challenge. The ‘champion of the herd’ against the ‘champion of the pride’. Winner takes all.’
‘Like the challenge which you overcame when we encountered the other three males?’ Leo asked, a little uncertainly.
‘I don’t know,’ admitted his brother. ‘It looks like it, but we can’t bring a whole load of wildebeests into the Pride…can we?’
‘Not unless we want them eaten before the day is out,’ Leo commented sardonically. ‘Well, I might as well accept it,’ he said, offering his brother a moment to object. When the former-human didn’t, he focussed on accepting the challenge.
The moment it was accepted, the wildebeest put his head down and charged straight at Leo. As each foot fell on the ground, he appeared to grow.
‘Look at that! The System sure means business when it restricts a challenge to only two participants,’ Dominic commented in surprise. Leo saw what he meant: while other lions were attempting to attack the wildebeest en route, they hit some sort of barrier and fell back, uninjured, but unable to get closer.
‘Perhaps it’s an Ability of the creature,’ suggested Leo even as he mentally considered how to deal with this battle.
‘Unlikely,’ Dominic concluded. ‘I’d be surprised if it’s Tier 2, and it’s already shown two Abilities with the bellow and this…whatever it is that’s making it bigger as it runs.’
‘Any suggestions?’ Leo asked, preparing to dart out of the way of the charging beast which by this point looked half the size of an elephant. A small one.
‘Dodge?’
As if he hadn’t been intending on dodging even without the advice! Still, Leo did just that, triggering Quick Strike to get out of the way of the behemoth. Fortunately, starting the challenge had meant that his stamina had been replenished, so he had plenty to work with.
Spinning on a dime, Leo leapt back at the wildebeest, only to backpedal when horns swept right into the space he’d been occupying only a fraction of a second earlier.
To avoid them, Leo employed a tactic favoured by his brother: leaping. Propelling himself with his powerful muscles, he jumped straight up, confusing the wildebeest. To its eyes, he had probably just suddenly disappeared.
Then, before it could look up, Leo once more activated Quick Strike, speeding his downward fall – right onto the wildebeest’s back.
It was no longer massive, but was still a good size for a bull. Still, Leo was more than a good size for a lion, so while his weight falling on its spine didn’t immediately drive it to the ground, it did significantly impede the wildebeest’s movements.
Leo set his claws into the flanks of the challenger, and bit at its spine. This one was bigger than the one he’d taken down before, and its hide was tougher. Even once he got through the hide, he found that the muscle was dense and resistant even to his sharp teeth. Clearly, the prey beast had put most of its enhancements into its defence.
But he wasn’t deterred – even if the wildebeest was more than it might have been before the world changed, so was he. Flicking his tongue, he spat acid into the wound, then just clung on as the wildebeest tried to buck him off.
It was bellowing in pain and fury, exhausting itself as it tried to shake the lion off its back. It even tried to roll, but Leo just held on – though it was heavy, he had faith that his enhanced bones and body would be able to take it. It wasn’t a rhino, after all.
When the flesh started softening beneath his teeth, he poured stamina into Crushing Bite, finally starting to make some proper progress.
The fight drew out for three seconds, four seconds…then Leo’s teeth slid together with a wet sort of crunching sound. The wildebeest immediately collapsed to the ground as its legs gave out on it. Its breathing laboured, Leo finished it off by setting his teeth into its throat and strangling the last of the air out of it.
While choking the wildebeest, Leo was able to see that several of his pride were watching in interest, perhaps curious as to why he had been able to attack it while the others hadn’t. The wildebeest were surprisingly unmoving too.
With his victory, though, the battle recommenced, the lions leaping on the wildebeest; the herbivores running frantically from the predators. Not all the wildebeest were killed, though, many escaping to disappear into the dust cloud created by the rest of the herd.
The lions gave up any sort of chase within a few seconds, going to start eating one of the many carcasses littering the savannah earth.
‘It’s dead, you know’ Dominic reminded him a minute or so later. ‘Absorb it, would you – I want to see our rewards!’
Leo did so.
‘Alright, that screen’s come up again. Want to swap so you can see it too?’ Leo considered it for a moment, but then agreed without argument – he’d had good fun in the fight and wasn’t averse to taking a break now.
From the back seat, he now looked at the screen that they had seen twice before: once with the other chimera, the other time in the more recent fight with the three male lions.
[You have killed [Blue Wildebeest Champion]. Access enhancements?]
[Benefits calculating….]
[Blue Wildebeest: Evolved, level 10, 25 EP]
[Enhancements available:
Sharp horns (3 EP)
Even-toed hooves (5 EP)
Blunt teeth (3 EP)
Striped flanks (3 EP)
Muscular shoulders (5 EP)
Robust muzzle (3 EP)
Enhanced Stamina (6 EP)
Momentous Charge (10 EP)
Challenging Bellow (8 EP)]
‘Huh, so it was Tier two, if only barely. Anyway, some decent enhancements there,’ commented Dominic, ‘Surprisingly better than the ones offered by the lions. But I’m not sure any of the physical ones are worth it, do you?’ Leo considered it carefully.
‘Do you think the females would dislike it if I had horns?’ Surprise came across the link from his brother.
‘You’re considering horns? Why?’
‘It’s extra protection for my head,’ Leo responded promptly, ‘and another weapon that could be used if our teeth and claws are already otherwise occupied.’
‘I see your point,’ Dominic mused, ‘but I was hoping to get all the Abilities there. If we get the horns, we’ll only be able to get two of them.’
‘Why do you want to get Enhanced Stamina? With as many Cores as are lying around in the bodies of the prey our pride has killed, I’m sure that we’ll get it now. We’re already almost halfway towards acquiring it, anyway.’
‘That’s true,’ his brother agreed, ‘But then the Cores could go towards making progress to the next level and whatever benefits are offered there.’
It was a good point, but for some reason, the idea of having a small pair of horns sticking out of his mane had captured Leo’s imagination.
Maybe he’d been infected by his brother’s humanness – they always seemed to want horns and wings and goat feet for some reason. At least, there was always one dressed like that at ‘Halloween’ from what he could tell. And while Leo looked with contempt upon prey beasts, surely a lion of all creatures could give a nice set of horns a touch of majesty….
